yet another leak thread

[Chuck]

Recently discovered a leak in the roof. During heavy rain, I noticed water on the antenna crank shaft. obvious suspect: the antenna. However, there is a second penetration in the roof for the antenna lead wire, too, and as water can be soaked up by the insulation and travel great distances to parts unknown, and the fact that there are 2 crank-up roof vents nearby, I decided to pull the ceiling panel down and have a look.

I pulled out the wet insulation in the center area, and then had my helper hose down the roof. Water was pouring in through the antenna shaft. Antenna lead was not leaking, and neither were the vents. OK, fine...remove the skyliner antenna, patch up the hole for now, fix later.

problem: after a few days, I went out to make sure my patch was holding, and I could feel wet insulation behind the curb-side wall panel. I'm not sure if this was from the old leak, or if perhaps there is another one. Its hard to see in there, and there aren't many places to reach in, either, as there are what appears to be "nailer strips" between the roof panel and the interior panels. looks like at least part of their purpose is just to give something to attach the interior panels to. Anyway, I'm wondering how I should proceed

1) leave the ceiling panel open for a while, and let things air out on their own?

2) try and peel back some of the interior panel and continue searching for leaks, removing as much wet insulation as possible in the process, because that needs to come out asap?

3) assume I have the leak fixed, close everything up, and hope for the best?

There aren't any other obvious leak candidates in the vicinity. there are no other roof penetrations. the roof panel overlaps this area by a good distance, and overlaps the adjacent exterior panel, as well, so any water should just roll off there. its rivets are all secure...continuing down hill, the next thing is the awning rail and then the door, both of which have a recent vulkem-ing. The fridge vent is nearby, but the insulation above that area along the edge of the ceiling panel feels dry.

[RichardT]

A dehumidifier put inside of the trailer for a few days works great to dry everthing out, I do this at least once a year, but I am not sure that they work in cold weather.
Insulation will dry in warm weather and water will not hurt the Aluminum. Leave it exposed open the roof vent and turn on the fan would be what I would do if the dehumidifier will not work in your current weather.

[Chuck]

Originally Posted by richardt

A dehumidifier put inside of the trailer for a few days works great to dry everthing out, I do this at least once a year, but I am not sure that they work in cold weather.
Insulation will dry in warm weather and water will not hurt the Aluminum. Leave it exposed open the roof vent and turn on the fan would be what I would do if the dehumidifier will not work in your current weather.

well, its cold weather alright...and we're due to get snow any time. (last year, we had a foot or more on the ground at this time.). So I need to get it moved to its winter parking space soon, which is out of reach of electricity. But I could let it air out all winter....as long as there isn't actually another leak, in which case, it won't ever dry out.

[TomW]

Originally Posted by chuck

..Anyway, I'm wondering how I should proceed

1) leave the ceiling panel open for a while, and let things air out on their own?...

I ran the heat & the air conditioner at the same time the last time I had an unexpected accumulation of water. This is basically the way a wood kiln dries lumber - The heat evaporates the moisture, and the A/C condenses it out. Both fans going really keeps the air moving.

Tom

[malconium]

I highly recommend the Dri-Z-Air non-electric dehumidifier system. I found one web-site that shows the product if you are not familiar with it. It is readily available at places like Home Depot and Lowes. Basically it is a container that contains crystals that will absorb moisture out of the air. The Crystals eventually all turn to liquid in the tray of the container. The product really does work as long as you replace the crystals periodically.

http://www.drytheair.com/xcart/store..._Crystals.html

For a large AS you might want a couple of them.

Malcolm

[dscluchfc]

I recently had more leaks. Everything had been parbonded and vulkemed within an inch of life and it rained hard and still....leaks in at least a couple of places.
SO.....I got some clear acrylic spray....clearcoat.
And I sprayed every rivet, and every overlap seam on the roof, the awning rail attachments, the fridge vent, the tv antenna seals, and also at the rear bumper and banana rail....and that sealed it up I hoped.
Then it rained and it didn't leak.It doesn't take much of a hole to allow quite a bit of water in it seems.

[Over59]

You need to warm it up, alot. Then get the water out of the warm air. It will take a couple days and the lower insulation will be the last to dry out but the most important as it's against the floor. Problem is no air circulation in the wall other than what you create by warming them.
How long has it been leaking? You know a couple of those rain storms we had found leaks in roofs that would have never shown up otherwise. If you are not sure that you got the leak put a trap over the top for the winter, like a 12 foot wide one, tie it down good. I don't think you would get significant water from anywhere other than the roof or window tops.
See you in rally season, Merry Christmas.

[Chuck]

well, I checked on it thismorning, and it already seems drier...and we had rain last night...more today. So I'm starting to think that I just hadn't noticed this wetness when I first took down the ceiling panel. so I fired up the furnace, as someone suggested. I'll let that run for a while, and see how it goes. It looks like I can detach the wall panel and peel it back a little bit more without too much problem and get a better look, just to make sure that nothing else in the area is leaking.

I'm sure its been leaking for quite some time...possibly since before I owned it. When I took out the carpet installed the pergo floor last year, I did notice damp plywood near the door...but it was "mild". I figured I just needed to re-seal the door and adjacent window, which I did. Now I realize the water was most likely coming from the antenna.

[Over59]

Another Full Monty for the boys...and girls to follow along with. You know what happens when you look.